President Barack Obama reaffirmed his strong commitment to maintaining an open and neutral Internet during a crowd-sourced "interview" conducted on YouTube. And words from the departed historian, author, playright and educator, Howard Zinn.

Crisis Commons created CrisisCamps for Haiti to create technological tools that would help responders find people, supplies and more aid. And the Media Action Grassroots Network brings more than 100 organizations from across the country together into a local-to-local social and media justice advocacy network.

The FCC received more than 19,000 comments – representing a diverse array of several hundred thousand individuals and hundreds of groups – on Net Neutrality. And strange bedfellows have joined together to stop the Comcast-NBC Universal mega-merger.

Robert McChesney clears up long-held misconceptions about news production and discusses new ideas for a vibrant American media that supports good journalism. McChesney is author of several books on media and politics, professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-founder of Free Press.

As more people watch TV online or consider cutting the cord to their cable service, cable companies are getting nervous and attempting to stifle the competition. And media reformers share their best wishes for 2010.

This week, Media Minutes looks at five of the most important media stories of 2009. Stories include the new FCC, Net Neutrality, campaigns against cable opinion news programs, LPFM and the Comcast-NBC Universal merger.

The year 2009 will end with journalism as we’ve known it in a precarious position. With many newspapers and magazines folding like a house of cards, new media experiments are emerging with no clear model for success. What’s in store for journalism’s future?

Public interest groups are worried that the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan may already be headed down the wrong track. And a new bill in the Senate would curb mobile phone contract early termination fees and make their terms more transparent to customers.

The Citizen Media Law Project provides legal resources for online publishing, covering a wide range of issues, from free speech to newsgathering to intellectual property. And Jehmu Greene is bringing a grassroots perspective to her new position as president of the Women's Media Center.

The Comcast-NBC merger will create a media behemoth that spells disaster for consumer choice and diversity in media. And Ruth Livier decides she doesn't need a television network to create an award-winning TV series.